


The Ballad of Love and Truth

by spaceyspades



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, Jaskier regrets his drunk writing until he doesn't, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Canon Compliant, Romantic Comedy, Truth Serum, sort of? not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22503706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceyspades/pseuds/spaceyspades
Summary: A love ballad Jaskier wrote about himself and Geralt one time while drunk beyond reason, but gave to some friends to sing instead of keeping for himself out of embarrassment, comes back to haunt him.While at a tavern with Geralt and Yennefer.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 8
Kudos: 538





	The Ballad of Love and Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this is the first time I've written enough of something to post in like... three and a half years.
> 
> Fun fact: the title of this in google docs is Gay Panic lmao
> 
> Big thanks to TheVagabondBoy for egging on my prompt in our geraskier discord server, and to PetrichorBather for checking for typos. If they missed any, I deny all responsibility. c;

Jaskier was having… well, he was having a day.

It wasn’t quite a bad day, but it definitely wasn’t a good one either.

First Yennefer was in the town he and Geralt had just arrived at. Then they all ended up going to the same tavern. And  _ now _ , there was already a bard playing in the tavern. Also, just to top it all off, the bard was playing the love song Jaskier had written about himself and Geralt, then gotten too embarrassed to sing himself and given away to some of his bard friends, all while absolutely wasted one night during one of his visits to Oxenfurt.   
  
Jaskier ignored the song to the best of his ability, along with Yennefer’s raised eyebrow, her amused knowing look, and her falsely innocent question of, “Alright, Jaskier?”   
  
“Absolutely dandy, Yen. Although, I could go for some better entertainment.” He sniffed disdainfully. Like he wasn’t the one who had written the damn song.

The random bard continued singing about a witcher and his bard and the other way around somewhere behind him. Luckily, even in a drunken haze, Jaskier hadn’t been stupid enough to include his and Geralt’s names in the song.

Jaskier tried very hard to evade the quiet panic lurking at the back of his mind that Geralt might recognize who the song was about and who had written it regardless of whether or not any names were named.

As the embarrassing song began to wax poetic about the dichotomy of a witcher’s strength and a bard’s soft music, Geralt grunted, his expression as bland as usual. “Don’t think it’s that bad.”   
  


That statement might not have given Jaskier a heart attack, but it did make him choke on the ale he’d just taken a sip of. “ _ Really _ ?” He asked quickly, then realized he sounded too eager so he cleared his throat and tried again, “Really?” He pointedly didn’t acknowledge Yennefer’s snickering.

Geralt nodded thoughtfully. “Reminds me of one of the guys in my cull, really. Eskel. He’s had a bard following him around recently, I think.”

Jaskier wasn’t quite able to stop the twitch that pulled at his eye, and he heard Yennefer cough in a poor attempt to cover her louder laughter. “Oh?” Jaskier prompts, because he is an idiot.

Geralt nodded again. “Hmm. What was that bard’s name again?” He mused. “It was some sort of flower. I remember because it reminded me of your name, Jaskier.”

“Oh, did it?” Jaskier asked weakly. 

Yennefer had quieted, but Jaskier didn’t have time to question it as Geralt continued.

“Dandilion? Sunflower? Whatever it was, he was very talkative.” He told them. “At first I thought Eskel just kept him around to save coin on whores, but… After watching them? The looks they gave each other? No. That was love. They’re definitely in love.”

Jaskier took a long drink of ale.

“I saw them together a few months back. The bard wore clothes that were not made for travel at all. Is that just the sort of thing all bards do?” Geralt asked. 

“Oh!  _ Oh _ , I know who you’re talking about!” Yennefer suddenly piped up. “I met him once. Lovely gentleman. Rather annoying sometimes, but otherwise decent enough.” 

Jaskier stared into the distance, questioning all of his life decisions. Somewhere in the tavern, that cursed bard persisted with his thrice damned singing.

“He had the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen,” said Geralt.

“That witcher was absolutely gone on the man.” Yennefer recounted. “Never known two people that made eyes at each other more often. It was absolutely pathetic, really.”

Geralt grunted.

“The bard was always following him around, writing songs about their ‘adventures’.” Yennefer went on. “Very flamboyant about it too. And just in general really.”

Jaskier paused for a moment before looking at Yennefer oddly. No one else was writing positive songs about witchers as far as he knew… 

“Brave for a bard,” Geralt chipped in.

“He can be impressively petty when he wants to be as well.”

“Unreasonably happy all the time.”

“Passable wardrobe.”

“Bit like a puppy.”

“Yappy, following his witcher around like he hung the moon and oddly adorable? Yes, I agree. Though if he’s the puppy, that would make his witcher the utterly devoted owner.”

“Hmm.”

Throughout the exchange, Jaskier gradually became more and more red as he came to a realization. He sat frozen, eyes wide as he came to understand that there was no other bard and witcher. 

_ At least the song is over _ , Jaskier thought to himself faintly.

Yennefer gave him an amused look. “Finally figured it out have you?” She began to stand. “Well, boys, it’s been fun, but I do believe you have some things to talk about. I’ll just be seeing myself out then. Have fun!”

And then she was gone.   
  


Jaskier groaned in embarrassment and buried his head in his arms on the table.

🝮

They ended up getting a room at the nearby inn instead of having a private conversation in a busy tavern.

Especially since, as a bard and a witcher, they were getting plenty of glances from the tavern patrons after  _ that _ song.

Geralt sat on the bed - the only bed, because of course the inn only had rooms with one bed each left - watching as Jaskier struggled to decide whether he wanted to pace or lean up against something as stiffly as possible. 

Jaskier eventually settled on the second option, and leaned next to the window, staring out of it so he wouldn’t have to look at Geralt. He was too nervous. “Well, I suppose I should start off with: was any of your story real?”

“No.” Geralt replied simply.

Jaskier nodded absently, his heart beginning to race as the implications of what that meant hit him. “So, you…”

“Knew that the song was about us?” Geralt finished for him. “Yes.”

“And that-”

“You wrote it? I could tell. Sounded like one of yours.”

“And what Yennefer said…?”

“True, if biased.”

Jaskier’s head snapped to face Geralt so quickly that his neck cracked. He desperately searched Geralt’s face for any trace of a lie, yet Geralt only seemed to be looking at him… fondly? 

“You’re… You really…?” He breathed, hardly daring to believe it.

“In love with you?” Geralt asked with a little smirk. Were he anyone else, Jaskier might’ve thought that the following pause was purely for dramatic purposes, but this was  _ Geralt _ . He would have finished that thought too, except the witcher finally deigned to answer his own rhetorical question. “Yes.”

The world seemed to stop for a split second; somehow not even the sounds of the town outside the window reached Jaskier’s ears. Maybe his heart skipped a few beats, but in the small eternity between one heartbeat and the next, nothing moved. Then, Jaskier was leaping across the room and tackling Geralt - or trying to, not that the wall of muscle that the man was made of moved an inch beyond lifting his arms to steady the slightly shorter man. 

It took Jaskier a moment to realise that he was babbling nearly incoherently. 

“Jaskier,” Geralt rumbled, sounding amused. He cupped Jaskier’s jaw in his hand, gently guiding him to meet his eyes.

Jaskier’s mouth immediately snapped shut. “Yes?” He definitely  _ didn’t _ squeak.

Geralt chuckled softly.

There was a moment where they simply stared into each other’s eyes, and Jaskier could barely breathe at the discovery of the softness of love in the witcher’s golden ones. 

When their lips met it felt like the culmination and release of decades of tension and pining.   
  


It felt like finally finding a home.

🝮

An indeterminate - but  _ very _ enjoyable - amount of time later, they lay in bed, panting and sweaty. Jaskier was curled into Geralt’s side, face tucked into the larger man’s neck. Geralt’s arm was wound around Jaskier’s waist, and his thumb stroked gently over the bard’s hip. Jaskier twirled a long white lock of hair around his fingers idly as Geralt stared contemplatively at the ceiling. 

Geralt hummed in the way that meant he was piecing something together.

Jaskier glanced up without moving from his spot. “What’s got you grunting this time, my dearest witcher?”

Geralt turned his head to nuzzle at Jaskier’s hair. “I think Yen slipped me a mild truth potion at some point earlier.”

“A truth potion?” Jaskier asked, blinking in surprise. He propped himself up on an elbow to look Geralt in the eye.

Geralt grunted in agreement. “Or just some elixir to lower my inhibitions without sapping me of my wits as well. Not strong enough that I couldn’t have resisted it if I’d tried, but enough to loosen my tongue a bit. I think she got a bit tired of us. Took matters into her own hands to get us together finally.”

That made Jaskier pause briefly before snorting and then snickering in faintly hysterical amusement. Once his laughter calmed enough for him to regain his ability to speak, he asked, “Are you saying that Yennefer set us up because she couldn’t stand us making eyes at each other anymore?” He met Geralt’s eyes again, and found the man staring at him somewhat adoringly, a small smile hinted at the corner of his lips.

“Hmm,” Geralt agreed. “I’m glad she did, though.”

“Oh?” Jaskier prodded teasingly, returning the look with a rather besotted one of his own, “And why is that? Were you not content with dancing around our feelings endlessly?” He brushed a strand of hair off Geralt’s forehead and trailed his fingertips down the side of his face from his temple.

“I wasn’t.” Geralt confessed, taking Jaskier’s wandering hand in his own and kissing the palm. “Because if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to admit it so soon.”

“Admit what?” Jaskier asked a tad breathlessly. 

“That I love you.” Geralt stated so matter-of-factly that it brought happy tears to Jaskier’s eyes.

As Jaskier leaned forward to kiss his witcher again, he wondered if it was too late to change his opinion on the day. 

Because it had actually turned out to be one of his favorites.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to join the discord server that brought about this nonsense?  
> https://discord.gg/bgfs8tn
> 
> I'm a mod and my server nickname is jasky c; feel free to join us


End file.
